Friday, September 4, 2015

COMPUTERS

Computers

Computers remain mysterious entities to me.
They do sometimes seem to have a mind of their own and sometimes the ‘ghost in
the machine’ even conspires against me! To be sure, computer ‘viruses’ can cause
these machines to behave strangely but will computers take over the world? Will
they be able to continually and improvingly rebuild themselves to the point of
technological singularity? I hope not! However, I don’t think these
labour-saving-devices ever will have world domination because, regardless of
the size or shape of the robot, the ‘ghost in the machine’ is not real but
artificial! Whereas computers have AI (Artificial Intelligence), humans have
real intelligence. What’s difference? Well, it’s all in the mind! A computer
may resemble a brain but that is as far as the resemblance goes. Whereas a
human has a mind of his/her own, a computer only reflects the mind of whoever
programmed it. It has no mind of its own. Therefore it doesn’t have the will or
desire to dominate the world or the office! Computers need humans to press
their buttons!

Is
our brain an organic computer and if so is there ‘a ghost in the machine’? If
by ‘ghost in the machine' we mean mind then we do, sort of… The mind does not
inhabit the human body. Unlike a computer which is mindless to start with the
human mind is simply an aspect of what we are by design. It is the mind not the
brain that does the thinking. However, as part of what we are the mind uses the
brain to think just as we use our legs to walk or our lips and tongues to talk.
Brain activity may mean that the mind is thinking, however it does not mean
that a human cannot think unless he/she has a brain! Pull the plug on a
computer and it is out of action. Pull the plug on a human and he/she continues
to think even when departed from the body!

Of
course this is where Christianity parts ways with the philosophies of
Materialism which believe that when a person is ‘brain-dead’ that person has
ceased to exist! However, God has no body or brain yet He thinks. And in His
revelatory Word we see lots of evidence of people who have died bodily but are
still living and thinking in the Intermediate State (Matthew 22:32; Revelation
6:9-11). Angels have no bodies yet they think! However, just as there is no
ghost or spirit inhabiting a computer, neither does our spirit inhabit our
body. Humans have been designed by God each one as a soul-spirit with a body (1
Thessalonians 5:23).

Just
as computers are subject to computer viruses causing them to malfunction so the
human race has been affected by sin causing a darkening to our thinking and an
estate of misery and death (Romans 5:12; 6:23; 2 Corinthians 4:4). Upon
conversion the Christian begins to undergo a process of mind-renewal as the
Holy Spirit continues to work with His Word and applying it to the Christian’s
heart (Romans 12:2).

Computers
merely reflect their programmers. Thus they do not possess self-awareness.
Neither do animals which are more sophisticated that any computer will ever be!
Some computers, like some animals, may seem to some to be self-aware. However,
this is only in the eye of the beholder. Like a bird attacking its own
reflection so fallen mankind attacks the God in whose image we are made! Computers won't take over the world. God
will!